The Foreign Service Journal, January-February 2022

42 JANUARY-FEBRUARY 2022 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL convincing evidence that any employees had suffered “adverse health effects as of the time of this analysis.” According to State Department medical consultant Dr. Herbert Pollack, who advo- cated on behalf of U.S. embassy employees in a Senate sub- committee investigation, every suit was eventually withdrawn, “without a penny being paid. ” This was not the end of the controversy, however, for while the report purportedly “proved” that embassy personnel were not significantly affected by the microwave bombardment, it was also acknowledged that the study was incomplete. In particular, since cancers and other health effects from micro- waves often took many years to manifest, follow-up studies and checkups of affected personnel every two to three years were recommended. As far as I have been able to determine, no systematic follow-up was ever done. The State Department had its report, washed its hands of the matter, and moved on. This was despite the fact that the microwaving of the embassy reportedly continued at least until 1988, and most likely well beyond that date. Over the years, thousands of Americans were exposed. A subsequent reevaluation of the Johns Hopkins study— “The ‘Moscow Signal’ Epidemiological Study, 40 Years On ” in the January 2019 edition of Reviews on Environmental Health — has called into question its methodology and conclusions, and some of the criticisms are devastating. In my view, they discredit the study and point to the need for a complete and more comprehensive re-evaluation. My Personal Experience This is where I come in. I had worked for Ambassador Mal- colm Toon in Belgrade and had apparently not disgraced myself, so he recruited me to come out as his staff aide in Moscow shortly after he arrived in 1977. It was my first tour of duty there. For the most part, I was unconcerned about the microwave controversy. The issue had faded a bit into the background before I arrived, and I was much more concerned about the immediate task of learning my job as ambassador’s aide, which was quite a bit more complicated than the tasks I had mastered in Belgrade. At the time, it seemed to me that the microwave issue was taken more seriously by embassy spouses, who were afraid for their children, than by the embassy leadership, who were, in fact, the ones in the crosshairs of whatever the micro- waves might be doing. Screens were put up on the chancery windows, which were said to diminish the microwave emana- tions getting into the embassy; but for me, it was just another part of life in Moscow. Microwaves continued to be beamed at the embassy throughout my tour, but like most people who arrived in Moscow later on, I was either largely unaware of the controversy or put it out of my mind. Shortly after my tour was over, I found out that my cavalier attitude toward the microwave issue was not at all justified. State’s Office of Medical Services (MED) informed me in late 1979 that my own white cell count was much higher than nor- mal, and advised me to continue to be tested. In 1985 my white cell count got high enough for MED to recommend that I see a hematologist, so I went to a local doctor in San Clemente, Dr. Tsang P. Fong. He did a bone marrow test (the one where they hammer a spike into the pelvic bone, very uncomfortable). The test confirmed that I had chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) stage zero, but that chemotherapy was not advisable since I had no symptoms, and the cure would be worse than the disease. As the reality of my illness began to set in, I started study- ing up on the issue. My research on CLL was not encouraging. Most patients progressed slowly to stage four and survived on average only a few years. I determined to fight the disease as best I could by adopting a healthy lifestyle—it’s really all I could do. State MED knew about the CLL diagnosis and downgraded me to a “Class 2” medical clearance, but didn’t stop me from going overseas, mainly because the jobs I was volunteering for often had no takers. My white cell count stayed stable through the 1980s, although I did notice that there were periods where I would look especially pale or have slightly swollen glands. My visits to Dr. Fong convinced me, however, that I was doing much better than expected. Most other patients I saw were very sick indeed, a pitiable lot. In the 1990s, for reasons no one can really explain, my white cell count began to normalize. By 1999 my CLL was in remission. At my last State Department physical in 2001, my “Class 1” clearance was restored. In more recent times, my CLL has appeared again, but still at a level that does not require chemotherapy. To this day, I don’t know exactly how I got CLL. In the back of my mind, however, I have always considered Moscow microwaves to be a prime suspect. I had arrived in Moscow in In the wake of the revelations about Moscow Signal, many U.S. embassy employees filed lawsuits against the U.S. government.